


The Grey Light of Dawn

by SpiritMuse



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Canon Disabled Character, Character Death, Gen, Pain, major ending spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 08:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11460093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritMuse/pseuds/SpiritMuse
Summary: Oh,Ignis thought detachedly as the pain stabbed right through his abdomen and out the back,that's not good.He felt himself being raised off the ground, only the toes of one foot still resting on the asphalt. Then he was flung sideways and he screamed as he hit the ground and the pain skewering him flashed white-hot.Major Ending Spoilers





	The Grey Light of Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Just in case the Episode Ignis trailer wasn't painful enough already. <3

_Oh,_ Ignis thought detachedly as the pain stabbed right through his abdomen and out the back, _that's not good._

He felt himself being raised off the ground, only the toes of one foot still resting on the asphalt. Then he was flung sideways and he screamed as he hit the ground and the pain skewering him flashed white-hot.

"Iggy!" he vaguely heard Gladio shout.

He choked out another scream as he felt the sickening sensation of the Yojimbo removing its blade from his body. He lay on the floor, gasping as he tried to clear his head through the mind numbing pain.

Yojimbo were part of a class of Daemons that were almost human, and dangerously intelligent. Unlike most, they fought with technique. With intent and purpose, restraint and patience, waiting for an opening before striking true with their long blades.

He had seen it happen to Noctis once. Skewered and lifted high into the air before being dropped like a broken doll. It had taken a frightening amount of curative magic to stitch the prince back together.

And now it had happened to him. And he had no idea if they still had enough magic to put him back together.

He pressed one arm protectively to his abdomen, trying somehow to stop the pain, or at least the bleeding, as he used the other to try and push himself shakily to his knees. He felt a wetness dripping along his wrist, in between his sleeve and his glove. Shit. He was losing blood far too quickly. He wasn't going to last very long like this without help.

Suddenly a flash of light lit up his vision bright grey and the screaming of a thousand daemons filled his ears.

He fell back down and curled in on himself, trying to cover his ears from the terrible noise. He might have whimpered. He couldn't tell.

Then everything went quiet. Too quiet. The almost constant noise of daemons screeching and growling that had been the backdrop to the world for so long was gone and all he could hear was his own laboured breathing.

"Iggy!"

The sound of Gladio's voice almost startled him in the silence. He heard the Shield's heavy footsteps approaching, and a large hand landed surprisingly softly yet firmly on his shoulder. More footsteps approached - Prompto - as the hand gently started pushing him onto his back.

"Let me see," Gladio said, worry clear in his voice.

The pain flashed and burned as he allowed himself to be moved and Ignis couldn't suppress a groan. His arm was peeled away from its protective position, letting the wound be exposed.

"Shit..." He had never heard Prompto sound this shocked. No wait, he had. All those years ago when Noct was swallowed up by the crystal he'd sounded exactly like that.

"That doesn't look good," Gladio said darkly as he let Ignis pull his arm back to its previous position.

"I'm not surprised," Ignis managed through gritted teeth, "it feels terrible."

He felt something being pressed into his free hand. A potion bottle.

"Here," he heard Prompto say.

He squeezed his hand around the bottle to break it but he found he couldn't quite muster enough strength. The bottle remained stubbornly intact, whatever curative was inside unreachable.

"I can't," he grunted.

"Let me help," Gladio said closer than he'd expected and a hand curled around his own and squeezed until the bottle broke.

Ignis relaxed in anticipation of relief, but none came. No gentle healing magic rushing over him to soothe the burning pain and it almost felt like being stabbed all over again. There were only useless shards in his hand. He let them slip out of his trembling fingers. There was a light tinkling sound as they fell to the ground.

"Prompto, do you still have that Phoenix down?" Gladio said.

"Yeah, hold on," there was a definite note of fear to Prompto's voice now, "Here."

A feather was pressed into Ignis' hand. He closed his fingers around it. Nothing happened. He pressed it to his chest, trying to invoke its magic, willing it to work. Still nothing happened.

"It's not working," Prompto's voice sounded panicked, "Why isn't it working?"

"It likely stopped working when Noct..." Ignis' voice faltered as an entirely different kind of pain stabbed through him at the realisation of exactly what this meant.

For a long few moments none of them spoke.

"So Noct's really..." Prompto sounded as close to tears as Ignis felt.

"Yeah." Gladio didn't sound much better.

Another silence.

"But, then," Prompto spoke abruptly, his voice only shaking a little, "if the magic's gone, we need to get Iggy back to Hammerhead, like, now!"

There was shuffling around Ignis and without warning someone pulled at him. His body twisted and he felt like the Infernian himself was pushing his flaming blades right through him. He screamed.

"Stop, you're hurting him!" he vaguely heard Gladio yelling.

"But he'll die if we don't take him!"

Despite his protest, though, Prompto let go and Ignis sagged back to the ground.

"I won't... make it to Hammerhead," Ignis gasped, trying to will the pain to go back down to a more manageable level.

"You don't know that! We have to try!"

"No," Ignis tried to speak as clearly, calmly as he could, trying to get his breathing back under control, "Even if- even if we do make it to Hammerhead... my injuries are too severe for- for the facilities there."

"But we can't just let you die without trying!"

"Prompto, he's right," Gladio interjected.

A short silence, then:

"So you're just going to give up on him? Just like that?"

"I'm just being realistic."

"Screw you, I won't accept this! Ignis, we have to go! Please!"

"I'm dead either way, Prompto!" Ignis grimaced with the effort of shouting.

Prompto remained silent then.

"I refuse to die somewhere out in the middle of nowhere," Ignis said more quietly, "I'd much rather die here, in the city... with Noctis."

Noctis - his king, his charge, his friend, his brother. The man whose side he would never leave voluntarily. Even in death, so it appeared.

"Where I belong," he added in a near whisper.

No response. Footsteps pacing back and forth. Prompto's breathing, ragged, wet. Everything sounded so crisp and clear in this silence.

"Dammit," Prompto whispered.

"I'm sorry," Ignis offered.

A huff of laughter, followed by a wet sniffling sound.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Iggy," Prompto's voice sounded quiet, thick.

"Still."

The trembling in Ignis' hands had grown into a full body shivering that he could no longer suppress. He was starting to feel cold. And lightheaded. It made it hard to think clearly. _The effect of the blood loss_ , his mind offered up, _probably._

"You're shivering," Gladio observed, worriedly.

"I'm cold," Ignis said through gritted teeth.

"Let's get you more comfortable then," Gladio said, accompanied by rustling of fabric and scraping sounds of boots on asphalt, "No need for you to be on the ground like that."

"Don't," Ignis gasped as he felt himself being lifted up and moved, but slowly, gently, carefully this time. He braced himself but the pain wasn't quite as intense as it had been earlier. Then he found himself being pulled to lean against Gladio's chest.

"You'll get... you'll get blood on you," he protested weakly.

Warmth surrounded him as Gladio wrapped his arms around him, one across his shoulder, gently but firmly pinning in the blood soaked arm he was still holding against his stomach, the other snaking underneath his other arm, leaving it free to move. It felt secure, yet not restrained. Safe.

"That's okay, Iggy. It'll come out," Gladio's voice was gentle, soothing.

Yet still he was shaking. Why was he still shaking? Gladio was warm. It didn't make sense that he still felt so cold.

"You have to... soak it in cold water, to get it out." He clenched his teeth to stop them from chattering.

"I know, Iggy. You taught me years ago."

As Gladio held him, slowly the violent shivers died down to a slight trembling, and the pain lessened into a dull ache. He started to feel a little as if he was floating. _This isn't good,_ a small voice at the back of his mind said, but he ignored it, too grateful for the relief. He relaxed a little, sagging into Gladio's chest, letting his head loll backwards almost lazily. He opened his eye and looked up at the sky. It filled his vision with grey. For the first time he realised there was light, everywhere. More than floodlights could have provided.

"Is it day?"

"Yeah," came Prompto's voice from beside him, sounding almost normal, "Sun came out a few minutes ago."

"I can see it," Ignis breathed, "I can see the light." Relief and happiness bubbled up inside him and he laughed drunkenly.

"We did it."

"We sure did, Iggy." Gladio's voice was thick but warm.

Ignis was starting to feel dizzy with it all.

"Be careful," he tried to turn his head to where Prompto should be, but he stopped when the feeling of vertigo became overwhelming. "You're not used to sunlight anymore. You have to protect yourselves from sunburn." It was important that they remember this. He couldn't leave his friends burning themselves to a crisp, now, could he?

"Especially you, Prompto. You freckle, as I recall." His tongue felt thick and unwieldy as he spoke and he vaguely registered himself slurring his words. He felt so tired all of a sudden.

"We'll be careful Iggy. I promise."

"Good."

His head swam. Ignis blinked and found he was having trouble seeing. Everything was just grey with no definable shapes. One of his eyes refused to open. He tried to look around, casting his arm out to find his hand gently colliding with something soft.

"Careful Iggy, that's my face," he heard Prompto say.

"Prompto? Is there a fog? I can't see you, everything is just grey."

There was a hitch in the movement of the chest he was leaning into.

"You're... blind, Iggy," Gladio sounded close and rumbly. That must be his chest, then.

"Oh," mumbled Ignis. "Well that's a bother."

He heard a wet huff of laughter from somewhere off to his side.

But really, he couldn't be blind. Or if he was maybe he was healing. Because he was starting to see something. A dark shape, slowly resolving into a human figure. It came closer. A face. A face he knew, a face he hadn't seen in far too long. But it couldn't be.

And yet, in the endless grey of the daylight, he could see him clear as crystal. The boy, the man he'd dedicated his life - and death - to.

"Noct..." he breathed. He stretched his hand out to Noctis, desperate to be by his side again, and felt his arm shaking with the effort. The expanse of grey began to fade into black at the edges.

Noctis smiled and reached out his hand to him, before being swallowed up by the swirls of darkness.

But Ignis could feel the hand in his. Warm and solid.

Content, he let himself be swept away.

**Author's Note:**

> *hands out tissues*


End file.
